The Lived Experience of Freedom of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities

Abstract

This article aims to provide an analysis of the lived experiences of entrepreneurs with disabilities inspired by the critical theory of freedom, using the notions of negative, positive and social freedom as a theoretical lens. Based on thirty semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the experience of freedom for EWD is ambiguous in various ways: (1) Engaging in the discourse of entrepreneurship offers a subversive discursive toolkit to debunk the constraints established by the discourse of ableism, enabling both negative and positive freedom. (2) This reflexive discursive stance against ableism enables EWD to resist the instrumentality of entrepreneurialism and maintain positive freedom. (3) Individualism being at the heart of entrepreneurship results in othering and undermines social freedom. Thus, while entrepreneurship offers greater individual freedom in both a negative and a positive sense for people with disabilities (PWD), it nevertheless fails to promote collective social change.